Beethoven at 'The Wild Man'
Synopsis
In September of 1825, Englishman Sir George Smart came to Vienna, hoping to meet Beethoven. Smart had conducted the British premiere of Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 9, and wanted, as he put it in his journal, \u201cto ascertain from Beethoven himself the exact tempos of the movements of his sinfonia.\u201d
By luck, Smart arrived in time to attend the first reading of Beethoven\u2019s String Quartet No. 15, which occurred on today\u2019s date that year in a private room at the Viennese Tavern Zum Wilden Mann.
Smart recalled: \xa0\u201c\u2026 we took ourselves to the Wilden Mann \u2026 as there was an assembly to hear Beethoven\u2019s new manuscript quartet. It is most chromatic and there is a slow movement entitled \u2018Praise for the recovery of an invalid.\u2019 Beethoven intended it to allude to himself, I suppose, for he was very ill during the early part of this year. Beethoven directed the performers, and took off his coat, the room being warm and crowded. A staccato passage not being expressed to the satisfaction of his eye, for alas, he could not hear, he seized the violin and played the passage himself \u2014 a quarter of a tone too flat.\u201d
Music Played in Today's Program
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): String Quartet No. 15, Emerson Quartet; DG 447 075